More Archie TV in development …and a special Valentine’s Day greeting from Riverdale

If you’re like me, this special Valentine’s day greeting from Cole Sprouse and KJ Apa – Apa with his adorable native Kiwi accent – was just what you needed!

But what Archie Comics needs is yet more TV. And as Graeme McMillan at THR reports, in the wake of Riverdale’s success, that’s just what they are getting, with WB signing a development deal with the company for more shows. Properties available include some somewhat obscure (to the general public)– Katy Keene and the Dark Circle superheroes– along with such proven successes as Josie and the Pussycats and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, one would guess.

The deal is similar to the WB pact with DC, which has led to more TV shows than we can even count.

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I don’t believe the Twin Peaks 90210-esque Riverdale has been a ratings smash but it is certainly a critical hit, under show runner Roberto Aguirre Sacasa.

According to the piece, Mark Waid will become a larger figure at the company, taking over writing Jughead and more titles and mentoring younger writers.

“This opportunity is exciting to me for a number of reasons,” Waid says about the new deal, which will be effective in May when he takes over writing the Jughead series with new co-writer Ian Flynn. “First, the chance to expand my role as a writer at Archie is terrific as we all share the same storytelling goals. Second, it allows me to exercise my editorial muscles, which — surprise — is why I got into comics in the first place. But most of all, the opportunity to help build a more diverse staff of writers, younger, eager to learn, and eager to teach me.”

In a full interview with Archie head Jon Goldwater, the line from Archie’s rebirth starting with the introduction of Kevin Keller to today is drawn:

We’re now a multiplatform company. We’re not just publishing. We have television and we’re talking about animation and licensing and everything, really. We have to now bring the aesthetic and fearlessness that made the comics successful into everything we do, while still keeping the publishing fresh and surprising. We can’t get complacent and we can’t assume people will be with us. We have to continue to strive for quality in the stories we share with our fans and we have to look for opportunities to stand out from the crowd. But our strategy won’t change: to get these characters out there in the best way possible, and to provide our fans with the best stories they could ever imagine.

If you’ve watched Riverdale, you’ve undoubtedly noticed this the Fiona Staples-drawn Archie head is used as part of the logo at the end. It is indeed an example of bringing one of America’s oldest, best known and sort of stodgy comics brands to a more modern vision.

Heidi MacDonald is an award-winning editor/journalist with 20 years. An editor at Disney and DC Comics, she edited such titles as The Lion King, Scooby Doo, Swamp Thing, and Y: The Last Man. She cohosts Publishers Weekly’s graphic novel podcast More to Come.